{"id":160,"date":"2017-12-13T19:09:27","date_gmt":"2017-12-13T19:09:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mainemaritime.edu\/mariner\/issue2-2017\/?p=160"},"modified":"2017-12-20T18:41:35","modified_gmt":"2017-12-20T18:41:35","slug":"love-of-the-sea-and-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mainemaritime.edu\/mariner\/issue2-2017\/class-notes\/love-of-the-sea-and-business\/","title":{"rendered":"Love of the Sea and Business"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Richard O\u2019Leary \u201954 has a small painting among the mementos at his oceanside home in Ogunquit, Maine. It\u2019s a small painting he made of a young boy watching a ship passing in the distance.<\/p>\n<p>It harkens to O\u2019Leary\u2019s boyhood infatuation with the ocean, which led to a remarkable career, from service as a naval officer and merchant mariner to Commandant of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy and founder and president of Cruise International \/ CI Travel, a company of 2,500 employees and a 14-ship fleet that cruised some of America\u2019s most prominent harbors.<!--more--><\/p>\n<div class=\"videoBox\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/SGbhBOhWQuc?rel=0&amp;showinfo=0\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<div class=\"videoCaption\">\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Watch an interview with O&#8217;Leary<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cI grew up poor, the son of an Irish immigrant,\u201d he says. \u201cMy love of the ocean and admiration for the people I knew from Maine Maritime led me to apply to the academy.\u201d Even though the cost of attendance was modest, O\u2019Leary worked for a year at a bakery (earning 62 cents an hour to start) to make his way into the school.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne of the best things about MMA is it puts you into a well-defined field, especially for those in the maritime trades,\u201d O\u2019Leary says. \u201cYou can earn very good money, and there are a lot of exciting things to do. I sensed that, way back when I was a freshman, it would be a good thing for me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As a deck grad, he enjoyed his early years at sea, in particular as a deck officer aboard SS <em>United States<\/em> (the \u201cBig U\u201d), a passenger ship known for its record-speed crossing of the Atlantic, which he traversed 250 times. His management and business acumen began to emerge when he came ashore, first at Kings Point, and progressively until he founded Cruise International in 1972, a 34-year adventure that grew into a multi-million-dollar business, which he sold to his employees upon his retirement.<\/p>\n<p>O\u2019Leary\u2019s business philosophy: \u201cTry to do the very best you can, then let it go.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDo more than people expect you to in life and business, because most people are trying to do less.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith any success achieved, share it with two groups: the employees and the people who believed and invested in you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>O\u2019Leary, who was among the first inducted into MMA\u2019s Hall of Fame and also awarded an honorary doctorate from the academy in 1998, has been generous in giving back. He has supported the college for many years with a substantial scholarship fund and a grant in his remainder trust.\u201cI must say, the academy has managed it beautifully,\u201d he says. \u201cThey\u2019ve done that, and also found people who really needed the help. I remember how difficult it was for me. So, it\u2019s been a great pleasure and makes me very proud.\u201d<span class=\"articleEnd\">\u2588<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"photoCredit2\">Photos: courtesy of Richard O\u2019Leary &amp; Billy Sims<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Richard O\u2019Leary \u201954 has a small painting among the mementos at his oceanside home in Ogunquit, Maine. It\u2019s a small painting he made of a young boy watching a ship passing in the distance.<\/p>\n<p>It harkens to O\u2019Leary\u2019s boyhood infatuation with the ocean, which led to a remarkable career, from service as a naval officer and merchant mariner to Commandant of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy and founder and president of Cruise International \/ CI Travel, a company of 2,500 employees and a 14-ship fleet that cruised some of America\u2019s most prominent harbors.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/mainemaritime.edu\/mariner\/issue2-2017\/class-notes\/love-of-the-sea-and-business\/\">&#8230;Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":161,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainemaritime.edu\/mariner\/issue2-2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainemaritime.edu\/mariner\/issue2-2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainemaritime.edu\/mariner\/issue2-2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainemaritime.edu\/mariner\/issue2-2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainemaritime.edu\/mariner\/issue2-2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/mainemaritime.edu\/mariner\/issue2-2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":621,"href":"https:\/\/mainemaritime.edu\/mariner\/issue2-2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160\/revisions\/621"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainemaritime.edu\/mariner\/issue2-2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainemaritime.edu\/mariner\/issue2-2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainemaritime.edu\/mariner\/issue2-2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainemaritime.edu\/mariner\/issue2-2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}